On top of that an unknown number of citizen journalists have been
killed within the past year, Frank Smyth from the Committee to
Protect Journalists told Journalism.co.uk.

Today is World Day Against Cyber Censorship, intended to "rally
everyone in support of a single internet without restrictions and
accessible to all".

Google and Reporters Without Borders have joined together to mark
the occasion and to hand out a prize for defending online
freedom.

"Never have so many countries been affected by some form of online
censorship, whether arrests or harassment of netizens, online
surveillance, website blocking or the adoption of repressive
internet laws," RSF says.

In this feature we take a look at the restrictions, penalties and
tragedies involved in the online reporting of the Arab spring.

The boundaries
between those recognised as journalists and those who are seen to
be citizen journalists are certainly breaking downFrank Smyth,
CPJ

"It's unclear how many citizen journalists
have been killed in Syria, Libya and other nations," Smyth, who is
executive director of private firm Global Journalist Security and
part-time senior advisor for journalist security for the CPJ, told
Journalism.co.uk

"Certainly dozens of journalists and activists" have died over the
past year for attempting to report, he said, "and that may be a
conservative estimate".

"I think what this shows is that citizen journalists, citizen
activists, are the ones on the frontlines of reporting activities
in nations that are under siege, in many cases by their own
governments."

It is the efforts of these frontline reporters in Syria and
elsewhere that have brought news of the violence of oppressive
regimes to the world's attention, he said.

"What compelled international journalists to enter the country have
been the video images and still photographs that were uploaded from
Homs and from elsewhere in Syria by activists, bloggers and citizen
journalists who are out there with cell phones and other handheld
devices in order to capture what is occurring and upload that and
get it out to the outside world."

Those like Rami Al-Sayed, a key
provider of online videos showing the Syrian government's
bombardment of Homs – who was
tragically killed last month – have gained recognition as
extraordinary journalists rather than ordinary citizens.

"The boundaries between those recognised as journalists and those
who are seen to be citizen journalists are certainly breaking
down," Smyth said.

Syria and satellite connections

Smyth added that in Syria the government is doing all it can to
censor information leaving the country.

"There's some concern that citizen journalists and others are using
satellite phones to upload images and video of abuses and attacks,"
Smyth told Journalism.co.uk

Several technology experts have warned of the dangers of using
satellite phones, including Smyth who
blogged on the CPJ website about the issue.

There are several ways to track satellite phones, including through
its radio emissions and using other technologies, Smyth said.

"Anyone using a sat phone needs to realise that it could be
actually tracked and used for targeting ordinance or for military
attacks.

"It has to be used in a limited manner for no more than 10 minutes
and some would argue that even that isn't safe before switching it
off and even taking out the battery and switching locations."

Libya and 'fighting with the camera lens'

Under Gaddafi's long rule of Libya citizen journalists were
censored.

There was a danger for activists and ordinary citizens if they
appeared in video footage or were quoted in blog posts. For those
trying to report there was the danger of being in the street to
gather information, video and pictures, a risk of being caught with
the footage on a phone or device and fear induced by patrols
looking to catch anyone trying to connect to the internet.

"There were reports that the security forces were going round
checking whether people had some kind of internet signal or
internet connection in their homes," said Haret Alfasi, a Libyan
raised in the UK who runs LibyaFeb17.com, a site he set up
as soon as the Arab spring spread to Libya using his knowledge of
the country and language to curate and translate citizen journalist
reports coming from inside the country.

There was
always a danger of not merely people fighting with each other using
weaponry, but there was the media and the camera lens and that was
also a means of fighting the regimeHaret Alfasi,
LibyaFeb17.com

"The police and army were driving
round in trucks trying to detect internet signals," he said. "If
you were found with an internet connection in your house that was
considered, at the time, an act of treason."

"It was considered that you were not serving the best interests of
Libya and you were considered to be working with the West and with
the enemy."

"He was tragically murdered hours before the UN resolution came out
to enable the no fly zone, resolution 1973, which he was so
desperately calling for in the morning while I was listening to
him," Alfasi said.

"Benghazi was being shelled, people were telling him to stay at
home but he went out and was tragically killed. He left behind a
wife who was pregnant with a beautiful baby girl."

Foreign journalists also spoke of violence experienced by them in
Libya. Last year four New York Times journalists told how they were
detained and suffered
"days of brutality", claiming they had been blindfolded,
taunted, and beaten.

"There was always a danger of not merely people fighting with each
other using weaponry, but there was the media and the camera lens
and that was also a means of fighting the regime," Alfasi
added.

Tunisia and journalism training

The cyberspace was strictly censored in Tunisia before the ousting
of President Ben Ali.

During his rule Tunisians connected to proxy servers based outside
the country in order to avoid detection by the oppressive
regime.

"Almost all Tunisian citizens know how to use proxy," Khalil
Ghorbal, co-founder of Le PaCTE Tunisien, an organisiation
promoting democracy and training citizen journalists in the country
told Journalism.co.uk

It's amazing,
everybody knows how to use a proxy and how to get the information
outsideKhalil Ghorbal, Le PaCTE Tunisien

"It's
amazing, everybody knows how to use a proxy and how to get the
information outside."

For anyone who was found to be blogging about the political
situation, the penalties were harsh.

"The Tunisian government and the ATI, the former internet agency in
Tunisia, were tracking and trying to steal information about the
administrators of [Facebook] pages, to find out who the guys were
behind them.

"Three were arrested, two bloggers and a rap singer, right before
the revolution," Ghorbal said.

"The rap singer was arrested because of the lyrics of his songs
which were clearly denouncing the repression and the governance of
the previous regime.

"The two other activists were arrested because of their known
actions before the uprising and were trying to organise a peaceful
march to denounce the internet censorship."

The three had called themselves "Ammar 404", named after the number
error page message received when a website is unavailable or
possibly blocked and the generic name given to someone who makes
you upset or angry.

Although severe penalties and restrictions are in place in many
countries including in Syria, in Tunisia citizen journalists are
now receiving training in how to report.

Ghorbal is one of the project leaders of Speak Out Tunisia, a Le
PaCTE Tunisien project offering training to citizen journalists.
Later this month will see the first cohort of citizen journalists
receiving training in practical skills such as photo and video
editing.

But as well as teaching the tools, the project will also teach the
ethics of journalism. Although citizen journalism has played a huge
role in the Tunisian revolution, through videos, photos and
Facebook, some of the information that has since been published is
inaccurate.

"We have seen a huge amount of wrong information which has led us
to re-think and re-teach the ethics of journalism," Ghorbal said,
talking to Journalism.co.uk from the US where he is currently
living.

The first session will be held the end of this month with further
training next month. "We are targeting all citizens, not just
journalists, in order to help preserve this freedom of expression,"
Ghorbal said.

A spring conference in citizen journalism will then follow, hearing
from expert bloggers, focusing on "how citizen journalism can help
in the next important steps of the Arab spring".

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